6 great women composers of the past who are rarely remembered today: A memo on creativity and life

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In virtually every last five or six centuries, there have been women who have composed music. They were accepted in the circles of male composers and received high marks from them, their works were widely performed and are still performed today. But usually male names are heard. Composing music for a woman seemed to be considered no more than a hobby, no matter what heights she soared to.

This does not mean that their names have sunk into the darkness of centuries. This means that many erudites who remember not only Mozart and Vivaldi, but also, for example, the musician of The Mighty Handful, have such annoying gaps in front of the names of female composers that it’s easier to throw the name out of the head. But a simple memo will help you remember them and no longer pretend that what you know little about simply does not exist.

Consuelo Velazquez

"Besa me … Besa me mucho" - this song has been known and sung for several decades by the whole world. There were many legends about how it was created and what then happened to the girl who wrote it. Many people jokingly believe that the song was written almost by accident, in adolescence, on a fit of heart, and Consuelo then never returned to music.

In fact, Velazquez also composed the song intentionally, under the influence of an opera aria - she studied music and listened to a lot of academic music. And she never gave up writing. Moreover, she made a successful career as a composer - she wrote many soundtracks for Mexican TV series, as well as a number of songs just for pop performers.

There was an incident with Consuelo. She happened to be invited to the jury in Moscow for the Tchaikovsky Competition. One of the performers announced a Cuban folk song and sang the same "Besa me" with the chorus. Velazquez did not embarrass the contestant and only after the event told the Soviet Minister of Culture that the song was not at all a folk song. The author is here he is … An awkward scene came out.

Fanny Mendelssohn

During her lifetime, the sister of the famous composer was known only to her family. She was constantly encouraged to write music, but … Then give what she wrote to her brother. It is known that he published several of her works as his own. She died young, from a stroke, at a rehearsal of a concert, where, along with other people's works, she wanted to openly play her own. The inconsolable widower did everything to make Fanny posthumously receive her calling. Her correspondence, diaries, notes were published, her works were returned to her name.

By the way, Fanny's husband was an artist. From the very beginning, he believed in Fanny's talent and selected her notes in order to draw some illustrations for them. He did not understand music at all and simply asked what the play was about. After a while, Fanny herself began to leave space on the sheets with notes on purpose for her husband's illustrations.

Dina Nurpeisova

Kazakh Dina was born at a time when a musical career was not even considered for a girl: in 1861. Her mother, for example, was unusually musical, but could very rarely pick up an instrument. First of all, she was a wife, whether she wanted to or not, and her day was filled with chores. Dina's father also played well on the dombra. He did it much more often than his wife. Often he entertained his daughters in this way, and one of them - Dina - looking at her father, remembered how to touch the strings so that they sang.

Dina inherited from her father and strength. He was a real hero. She, like the steppe girls of gray-haired, forgotten antiquity, skillfully fought with the boys on horseback: when two, sitting on their camels, grapple in a struggle, who will throw whom down. She had the strength to win over and over again. But her vocation was not in sports, but in music. Dina began to compose her songs.

For a long time she did not want to get married, because she had heard a lot about the fate of other songwriters. One was not even given a dombra in their hands, so as not to be distracted from the trouble. From others they beat out "whim" with their fists. From the age of nine, Dina herself came to listen to familiar families, she did not want to bury her talent in the ground. Kurmangazy himself, a legendary musician, highly appreciated her gift.

At nineteen, the late Dina was nevertheless given in marriage, and Kurmangazy personally came to talk with the groom. The old musician was worried that Dinu was waiting for the same fate as the others, and put pressure on his authority so that the young husband would allow her to play and compose every day. Only shortly before that, another gifted songwriter, named Balym, was beaten by her husband out of envy of her fame so that she went blind (and poured out her grief in the song "Nightingale", but this did not return her sight). So Kurmangazy had a reason to worry about Dina. He became a frequent guest of Dina's husband to follow the fate of the talented songwriter.

In the thirty-seventh year, the composer Zhubanov transported the legendary songwriter to the city, where she was able to teach traditional Kazakh music to new generations. By that time, Dina had lost two husbands and half of her children - one son in the First World War, the others during the great famine of the thirties. Dina not only taught at the Philharmonic, but also gave concerts. She lived to be ninety-four years old.

Hildegard of Bingen

One of the most famous female composers of the Middle Ages, Hildegard lived in German lands in the eleventh century. She had been in poor health since childhood. It is not surprising that they preferred to prepare her not for marriage, but for a spiritual career. She went from novice to abbess of the monastery. In addition, she achieved the construction of a women's monastery, where novices of non-noble origin would be admitted (since the monasteries provided education and the opportunity to make a career, many monasteries practiced restriction on the estate).

From a very young age, Hildegard wrote sacred hymns - both words and music. She was distinguished by a unique author's style - boldness in melodies. Quite monotonous motives were in trend, while Hildegard allowed herself strong transitions in pitch. She also wrote several texts dedicated to her visions and medical practices that were relevant at that time, but she remained in history precisely as a composer.

Cassia the Songwriter

About two hundred years earlier, there lived a girl named Cassia in Constantinople, who also chose a spiritual career. There is, however, a legend that she participated in the bride show for the young emperor Theophilus - and he first chose her, and then thought that she was too smart, and changed his mind. But the credibility of this legend is doubted, but the whole path of Cassia as a nun is documented. Glory to the Byzantine bureaucracy.

Cassia was born into a wealthy family. With the family's money, she built a monastery. It was in this monastery that she was tonsured. Not surprisingly, she was elected abbess. It is believed that about fifty spiritual songs of her authorship have survived. The researchers note that not only the music, but also the poetry of Cassia is quite original and shows her remarkable knowledge of the Christian doctrine. It is believed that she also wrote a number of epigrams ridiculing stupidity and ignorance, but this has nothing to do with music.

Clara Schumann

The wife and songwriter of Robert Schumann was herself an outstanding, well-known songwriter. In light of the biographies of Cassia and Hildegard, it is probably not surprising that Clara was born into the family of a theologian; her father was also a cantor, that is, a singer in the temple. Her mother, despite being a married woman, was a concert pianist. Parents divorced when Clara was five. According to the custom of the times, Klara and her brothers stayed with their father.

Clara's father prepared her for a career as a concert pianist. From the age of eleven, she already performed in front of the public, at first for free. Over time, her level increased significantly, and her father began to sell tickets for her game and organize tours. As a pianist, Clara was so good that Paganini himself invited her to collaborate.

Robert Schumann was not a musician when he met Clara. He studied to be a lawyer. Having fallen in love with Clara, he began to take music lessons from her father in order to see the girl more often. As a result, he became a famous composer and Clara's husband. True, he was jealous of Clara for her talent, so the marriage was not the happiest. He demanded that she play less, even at home, and even more so - in front of the audience. He also tried to change the style of Clara's compositions - it seemed to him that they were simple in technique (which is quite possible, given the difference in the length of the fingers between men and women).

The Schumans had eight children, and this is what allowed Klara to tour further. Robert had to admit that the income from her concerts is very important to the family. Moreover, accompanying his wife on trips and watching her repeatedly find herself in the spotlight, Robert was jealous and became rude. By the way, he died much earlier than her - and after his death she stopped composing. Maybe the inspiration was gone, or maybe she was helped earlier by the enthusiasm, the opportunity to challenge the childish envy of her husband.

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